Cowboys’ play-it-safe style so far this offseason deserves quiet applause, for once

We like things that are smart and cost-efficient in our homes, in our cars, in our daily lives. We don’t care for it so much when it‘s the Dallas Cowboys on the first day of free agency‘s “legal tampering” period.

We’d be more impressed if the Cowboys did something illegal. If they did something bold. Especially if they had been the team to send two first-round picks to the Las Vegas Raiders for pass rusher Maxx Crosby instead of the Baltimore Ravens.

Crosby to the Cowboys would have broken the charts. ESPN would have had to create another channel for 24-hour Cowboys-to-the-Super Bowl talk. And Dallas could have done it, too, since Baltimore’s first-round pick in next month’s draft is No. 14. The Cowboys own No. 12. They could have sent that pick along with next year’s No. 1 and still retained the No. 20 pick in this draft.

That would have been electric. It would not have been smart. And more than just being prudent, I think the Cowboys conducted a reasonable examination — autopsy, if you will — of their first defense ever to surrender 30 points per game and said that Crosby won’t fix this by himself. This unit has too many needs from front to back for a player who will, in two years or less, be moving into the declining stage of his career to be the answer.

Cowboys

A blockbuster trade for Crosby also would have raised the question of whether the Cowboys might not have been better off just keeping Micah Parsons (no way of knowing whether his current ACL injury would have happened in Dallas) than going through all of this exercise to land Crosby.

And so the Cowboys went the other direction. They sent a fourth-round pick (decent value) to Green Bay for defensive end Rashan Gary. Nothing terribly exciting, which is why I couldn’t work Gary’s name into the first five paragraphs. Like defensive tackle Kenny Clark, who arrived from the Packers in the Parsons deal, Gary is deep into his career (this is season eight) and is a solid, proven player. He has never had a 10-sack season, but he has had between 7.5 and 9.5 four times. He has been to one Pro Bowl following the 2024 season.

Gary doesn’t come close to replacing Parsons, and he’s not Crosby, either. Is he Jadeveon Clowney? The Cowboys’ sack leader from 2025 is a free agent and not likely to return. He has played for seven NFL clubs, which is a lot for someone taken first in the 2014 draft. He may get more money elsewhere or he may just not be an ideal fit in new coordinator Christian Parker’s 3-4 base defense.

Regardless, Gary is more likely to replace Clowney’s production than expand upon it. With Donovan Ezeiruaku, one of last season’s few bright spots, having had torn hip labrum surgery and not likely to do much of anything until August, Gary might be filling his shoes as well. So there’s no way to look at the Cowboys’ initial foray into the offseason as having done more than sustained what they already had on defense, which was mostly deplorable.

But by not going after the massive Crosby trade and skipping on some of the bigger signings (Carolina reportedly paid $120 million, including $80 million guaranteed, to former Dolphins-Eagles pass rusher Jaelan Phillips), the Cowboys have, in Jerry Jones’ words, kept their powder dry. They did not take the Crosby bait, so they still have two top 20 picks to use in any manner they choose in fixing the defense.

I saw one mock draft that had them taking two defensive backs, which would be perfectly fine. Their needs in the secondary are extraordinary. Beyond the threats the Eagles and perhaps Washington, assuming a reborn Jayden Daniels, present, someone in the Dallas secondary has to cover the Rams’ Puka Nacua and Seahawks’ Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Texans’ Nico Collins and the Colts’ new $29-million-a-year man, Alec Pierce, not to mention Cards tight end Trey McBride. Really, for a team that ended the season allowing the Giants’ Gunner Olszewski 102 yards on eight catches, this list should include every team on the 17-game schedule.

Monday marked only the very beginning of the offseason. There will be ample time to impose more significant changes and give Parker a fighting chance this season. I won’t say the Cowboys dodged a bullet by not going after Crosby because that would have been entertaining as hell and, without question, would have given them a quality pass rush for opponents to contend with. But trading two ones would have left them far short of making across-the-board change to the NFL’s 30th-ranked defense.

The Cowboys weren’t one player away from anything but being two or three more players away. This fix will not be as simple as a two-for-one blockbuster.

Cowboys free agency tracker: Is Dallas ready to ‘bust the budget?’